1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method for automatically detecting and then self-repairing corrupt, modified or non-existent (e.g. deleted) files via a communication medium.
2. Related Art
The importance to the modern economy of rapid information access and exchange cannot be overstated. This explains the exponentially increasing popularity of the Internet, intranets, the wireless exchange of information, and so forth (including any distributed communication medium or system). This importance keep growing for businesses that conduct most, if not all, of their transactions via one or more of these communication mediums. Examples of such applications or services include business-to-business and business-consumer-e-commerce transactions, online applications such as banking, stock-trading, shopping, personalized content web sites, and so forth.
However, there are some problems. One problem is the protection of confidential information by using an adequate authentication system. Assuming that an adequate authentication system is in place to protect such confidential information, another problem results from the nature of a distributed communication medium or system. With a distributed communication system, modules or files that make up the authentication system are most likely to be physically located on different computers within the distributed communication system. Therefore, for modules that are located remotely from the authentication system administrator, it is difficult to guarantee their integrity. Only once the system administrator becomes aware of the lost integrity of a file can the file be replaced.
The integrity of a file or module fails when the file or module is altered, is deleted, or is tampered with in any way. Without the guarantee of integrity at all times, the value of any authentication system to businesses conducting most of their transaction via a distributed communication system (and to their potential customers) decreases.